TheWashCycle

Saturday Morning Ride - 10 former teammates

Good morning

• "The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency has filed formal charges against Lance Armstrong, accusing the seven-time Tour de France winner of using performance-enhancing drugs throughout the best years of his career....USADA says it has at least 10 former Armstrong teammates and associates who will testify against the cyclist, and blood samples from 2009 and 2010 that are "fully consistent" with blood doping."

Friday Afternoon Commute - "I was a Bikeshare member, and it encouraged me to get a bike."

Good afternoon

• Must Read: "Bike store owners say bike sharing is actually helping their businesses by fueling an explosion in bicycling enthusiasm. Moreover, bike shops say they are witnessing a culture change in their neighborhoods as more people leave their cars at home and hop on two-wheelers." and "a 2008 report in Bike Europe, a website for bike professionals, cited a 39 percent growth in sales of city bikes possibly attributed to the huge popularity of the Vélib system."
• Apartment building owners are looking to attract customers who are looking for bike-friendly accommodations. This includes locations near trails, access to CaBi or other bike rentals and storage or bike-repair rooms. 
• The BAC has some suggestions for improving Ward 4 and the Georgia Avenue corridor. 
• The ICC Trail isn't particularly good, perhaps we can make it better. 
• “At least it’s not as bad as our Republican colleagues wanted,” complained Rep. Earl Blumenauer, Oregon Democrat, who has championed bike and pedestrian programs. “But make no mistake, it is not a bill to be proud of.”  Meanwhile, the Heritage Foundation thinks cutting bike funding is fantastic. Mark Blacknell tries to discuss this at Patch only to have the comments overrun by Streetcar opponents. 
• A rundown of Tour de France favorites, and of the way in changes how male cyclists view the Olympics. Mark Cavendish, for example, is focusing more on the Games in his home country than on the Tour. Meanwhile, news continues to trickle out about the accusations against Lance Armstrong. 

Friday Morning Commute - Halfway

Good morning

• Silver Spring security guard stops a cyclist for riding their bike on the closed section of Ellsworth. He claimed that cyclists have to walk their bike, as the road is closed to vehicles. I'm sketpical. 
• "In a June 27 letter signed by [Lance] Armstrong’s attorney, the seven-time Tour de France champion claims USADA broke its own protocol this week by belatedly providing information about two witnesses against him. Armstrong further contends the new information — which comes from a television interview and letter previously made public — is so feeble and fraught with problems that it actually undermines USADA’s case and even jurisdiction in the matter."
• On the transportation bill, Republicans agreed to drop two issues that have nothing to do with transporation (the Keystone pipeline - an issue of their own creation - and the EPA coal ash regulations) and in return Democrats "gave up on $1.4 billion for conservation and agreed to allow states more leeway in how they use money that was once mandated for landscaping, bike improvements and pedestrian walkways" much of which is directly related to transportation. This from a bill that was already a compromise with Senate Republicans. So Democrats gave into Republican demands not once, but twice, and somehow Barbara Boxer can say with a straight face "“I am so glad that House Republicans met Democrats halfway." I'm sorry to tell you, but that is not halfway. If she thinks it is, then I would love to sell her a used car.  

Thursday Afternoon Commute - 30 Percent

That was some decision, when Woods chose to use his 6-iron on hole #3.

• M-NCPPC Montgomery Parks will perform emergency maintenance on the Rock Creek Trail between Old Baltimore Street and Aspen Hill Park beginning on or about July 2, 2012.
• The complete streets provision was eliminated from the final Transportation bill. RTC doesn't like it either. "The America Bikes coalition said the agreement that was negotiated by the House and Senate after a two-month conference would cut funding for biking and pedestrian programs by 60 to 70 percent because it would allow states to opt out of spending money in the highway bill on things other than roads and transit. "
• Biking mentioned in today's Obamacare ruling. 
• Revenue from e-bike sales this year worldwide is expected to reach $6.9 billion, a figure that is projected to rise more than 70 percent by 2018, according to a recent report by Pike Research , a Colorado-based research and consulting firm.

Thursday Morning Commute - ACA

Good morning

• Washingtonian asks "How truly bike-friendly is DC?" Which is sort of a tough question to answer. Less than Portland they say, but more than most other cities in the US. Which sounds about right. It could be better, but it could be worse. The UK transportation department once esitmated that if everything possible were done (short of banning the car) that bicycle mode share would saturate at 40%. Copenhagen is at 36%. If that becomes the scale  - 0-40% - then let's say above 20% is an A, 10-20% is a B, 5-10% is a C, 2.5-5% is a D and below 2.5% is an F. DC is at 2%, so the answer is "not very," just like almost every other city in the world.
• It looks like there will be a new transportation bill, but it won't be very good for cyclists. The money for bike/ped projects will now be inlcuded under “Additional Activities," which will get less money that Transportation Enhancements. TE was only one program that provided money to cycling in the old law, along with CMAQ and Safe Routes to Schools - both of which are also rolled into AA, so it's even more of a reduction than it looks like. Furthermore, some road projects will qualify fot the AA money, so it won't even all go to biking and walking.  And finally the money will be split 50-50 between states and cities and states will be able to "opt-out" and spend that money on roads it they want (dont tell anyone, but they want). So all in all, it will be a massive reduction in the amount of money given to cycling. 
• The town of Vienna, VA will sponsor a Summer Safety Campaign. 'Bicycle Advisory Committee Co-Chair Cris Janoski said, "We're seeing more and more people use the trail. Thus, there's this quote-on-quote 'overcrowding',' I think safety education is a good idea, but what is clearly needed is more trails to reduce overcrowding. Perhaps Congress will provide more funding.

Track Your Trips in July to Help Raise $10K for WABA

From WABA

WABA is thrilled to announce that we’ve been selected as the July beneficiary of the CLIF Bar 2 mile challenge!  Each month, CLIF Bar picks a different bicycling non-profit as beneficiary of its nationwide challenge to get people out of their cars for trips under 2 miles.  For every trip logged on 

2milechallenge.com during the month of July, CLIF Bar will donate $1 to WABA, up to $10,000!  With thousands of WABA members and dedicated cyclists throughout the region, we are confident that we’ll hit that 10,000 trip mark!

We only need 165 cyclists to log 2 trips a day in order to reach 10000 trips by the end of July.  And since this contest is nation-wide, cyclists in other states and cities can log their trips as well to benefit WABA.  So call your sister in Chicago, your brother in law in Nashville, your nephew in Ann Arbor and ask them to register!

Create an account at 2milechallenge.com by clicking “Join the Ride” and filling out your information. Then you can easily enter your trips each day.

So please, today, go to 2milechallenge.com and register to begin logging your bike trips!  Every trip logged now will help the Los Angeles Bike Coalition reach their goal of 10,000 trips by the end of June.  And it’s good practice for July, when we’ll need every trip duly logged to raise funds to support our advocacy and outreach efforts in the Washington area.

(The GPS smartphone version is a bit more complicated, but provides a ton of additional features for those who want to map and share routes and track training statistics.  You can create an account on Bike Brain by downloading the app onto your iphone or Droid and entering your information. Then, when you start pedaling, click START TRIP.  After each trip, click FINISH TRIP, ensure “Log Miles to 2 Mile Challenge” is checked, and click SHARE.)

 

 

Wednesday Afternoon Commute - Cut the Waist

Good afternoon. I'm in Arizona, and the local PBS affliate had a half-hour show on biking in the Phoenix area last night. They showed the Tempe Transportation Center  (which has a bike station) and the downtown bike boulevard with green paint down the middle. That's a nice touch, it encourages cyclists to take the lane, but keeps paint away from car tires.

• It's OK for cyclists to use the W&OD bridle path, but it may require extra caution. 
• New CaBi stations at 21st and Penn NW and at 19th and K NW. 
• The new Staff Draft of the Chevy Chase Lake Sector Plan includes several bicycle improvements, including trails that parallel and connect to the Capital Crescent Trail. It will also bring development right up to the trails edge. 
• One letter writer complains that in Alexandria "the Bike Share Program for Old Town produces a resoundingly negative result."
• Anti-cycling mayor of Toronto, fails to hit weight goal in Cut the Waist charity challenge. Perhaps bike commuting would help?

Bicycle Space pursuing Living Social/Chase small business grant

Chase and Living Social are offering 12 grants of up to $250,000 to small businesses and DC's own Bicycle Space [Full Disclosure: also a sponsor of this blog] is trying to win one. They need 250 votes in the next few days to qualify [Update: they have more than that now, but more can't hurt]. Go here and login to vote for them. We all benefit from better bike shops. 

Though our means are and have been limited, we have gone to extraordinary lengths to provide a place which is friendly, helpful, and active in supporting and building community to make our city better.  In our short life-span, we've been voted the Best in DC by both the readers and editors of City Paper, we've attracted the most Facebook fans of any local bicycle shop, and our YouTube channel has almost 13,000 views.  We lead at least six free weekly moderate-paced groups rides where we're friendly and respectful to both pedestrians and drivers.  We host two free weekly yoga classes, bike repair classes, host numerous free events, and provide assistance and financial support to numerous established and new organizations.

Our background is in working with bicycles, and we're using this platform to make Washington DC an exemplary city for getting around by bicycle.  Bicycles help to bring people health, happiness, liberty, and when areas can provide safe infrastructure, bicycles can even help with economic revitalization. 

Imagine for a minute if people in the city didn't need a car, or if couples only needed to own one car.  By AAA estimates, each household would save over $8,000 on the average by going car-free or car-light.  Now multiply that by all of the households in the region, while considering that people who use bikes as their primary form of transport spend much of their money locally, and you can see the potential economic benefit that bicycles can bring to our neighborhoods.  With new local opportunities, new specialty shops, cafes and restaurants will open, jobs will be created, employees will be hired, and profits will be reinvested locally to create thriving, dynamic, and connected neighborhoods.  One day, perhaps, we could enable even local manufacturing and production and bring even more jobs back home.

 

Firefly Ride and Picnic: A Full Moon Outing

Following a successful Ride and Picnic that attracted over 250 people last month, BicycleSPACE has planned another Full Moon Outing to take place on the evening of Tuesday, July 3rd.  In celebration of FireFlies, riders will be take a pleasant cruise through the city before finishing at a peaceful spot to enjoy a grand picnic and musical surprises.  To attend this free event, please register here.

Wednesday Morning Commute - Keen

Good morning

• The 11th Street Bridge's east side bike/ped connection to the waterfront should open in mid-Fall, right around the time the new Barney Circle/Southeast Boulevard Project EA wraps up. The later project will include a mutli-use trail from Barney Circle to 11th Street. JDLand adds "(You know what would be keen? If the improvements to VIrginia Avenue that CSX is looking at post-tunnel construction would include bike lanes all the way to Virginia Avenue Park, which could then maybe hook up with some sort of bike path across the north side of the park to 11th Street, where it would then access the Southeast Boulevard trail. Then there'd be a complete bike route from Barney Circle and points north on the Anacostia Riverwalk Trail all the way to Southwest, via a one-block jog from Virginia over to I Street SE at 2nd or 3rd or 4th, since I Street will be built between 2nd and New Jersey within a few years. This also might alleviate the issues with the Navy Yard and Yards portions of the Riverwalk not really being open to bikes.)"  
• After a driver nearly hit a cyclist one Tuesday morning and it was reported, Capitol Police stopped the driver. "The bicyclist who had nearly been struck by the vehicle positively identified the suspect. When approaching the suspect, the officer detected an odor of alcohol emanating from the suspect’s breath. The suspect was placed under arrest and taken to police headquarters for processing." 
• Misting stations for bike trails are a great idea. Of course better than that are trees, but I doubt you'll see a lot of trees planted along the MVT, because of a desire to maintain sightlines of the river.